Roaming Fold features on the first Ep from Mark Clifford and Scott Gordon’s collaborative project OTO HIAX.
Completed in 2011, this is the first of two Eps that will both be available in the coming months.
Released September 14, 2015
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Infinity’ is an immersive environment project by Refik Anadol. Project is an integral part of artist’s ongoing ‘Temporary Immersive Environment Experiments’ which is a research on audio/visual installations by using the state called immersion which is the state of consciousness where an immersant’s awareness of physical self is transformed by being surrounded in an engrossing environment; often artificial, creating a perception of presence in a non-physical world.

In this project ‘infinity’ chosen as a concept,a radical effort to deconstruct the framework of this illusory space and transgress the normal boundaries of the viewing experience to set out to transform the conventional flat cinema projection screen into a three dimensional kinetic and architectonic space of visualisation by using contemporary algorithms.

Light is the major element in the experiment, used to blur and interconnect the boundaries between the two realms actual/fictional and physical/virtual. It signifies the threshold between the simulacrum space created by the projection technology, and the physical space where the viewer stands. The experiments will discuss the inherent spatial qualities of immersive virtual environments and their effect on the embodied person. Through the presented framework, the experiments intends to question the relativity of perception and how it informs the apprehension of our surroundings. Rather than approaching the medium as a means of escape into some disembodied techno-utopian fantasy, projects sees itself as a means of return, i.e. facilitating a temporary release from our habitual perceptions and culturally biased assumptions about being in the world, to enable us, however momentarily, to perceive ourselves and the world around us freshly.

Cumulus is an interactive installation that reacts to sound with light. The cell like structure is meant to create behaviors that mimic the deliberate yet erratic behavior of lightning. Overall the piece is much lighter than the overall volume it occupies. Much like sponge the structure relies on redundancies and connections that cannot be achieved from a grid, giving it a soft cloud like shape. The irregularity of the network like structure imbues the piece with a playful personality as it reacts in unpredictable ways to environmental sound. Various behaviors were programmed including a trail that cycles through the structure, waves, and pulses, each responding to the amplitude and various ranges of surrounding sound. Each time sound in the space reaches a certain volume the piece activates. The most interesting behavior was similar to our initial intent, lightning. This behavior seeks a path through one of the next connecting segments. The duration of the path is dictated by the volume of the sound that activates it. This simple algorithm creates a wide range of effects from long lightning like strands created through sporadic low frequency sounds to a staticky chatter when people are talking underneath it.

The interactivity is achieved through a series of physical and digital systems working together. The structure is made of over 200 acrylic segments connected with over 100 unique 3D printed joints. Inside of the structure is a network of individually addressable LED strands. Overall 70 meters of LEDs were used to activate the whole structure. The various behaviors and reactions to sound were programmed using Processing. We built a UI using Proceesing to analysis the sound, activate the various behaviors, and communicate with 3 Arduino microcontrollers that then dispersed signals activating the particular LEDs that corresponded with each segment.

The piece is installed in the RAB gallery in the heart of New York’s Chelsea arts district at 535 W 24th Street and runs through July 3rd and is open to the public weekdays from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm.